This is a zine dedicated to death/thrash, technical and traditional death metal for more info contact hatredmeanswar@yahoo.com looking for new authors do to lack of time to cover everything email me at the email listed above if you want to do reviews and interviews for the blog.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Mortor are a band from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada that plays a mixture of death and thrash metal and this is a review of their self released 2012 "Shoot 'Em Up".

Drums range from slow, mid paced to fast drumming with some blast beats being thrown into the music at times, while the bass playing has a very strong and powerful tone with heavy riffing that dominates throughout the recording.

Rhythm guitars range from slow, mid paced to fast riffs that combine death and thrash metal together to create a sound of their own with some groove elements being added to the riffing at times, while the lead guitars are very old school sounding death/thrash metal guitar solos and leads.

Vocals are all deep death metal growls that are very easy to understand, while the lyrics cover violent, hateful and everyday themes, as for the production it has a very strong, powerful, heavy and professional sound for being a self released recording and you can hear all of the musical instruments that are present on this recording.

In my opinion Mortor are a very great sounding hybrid of death and thrash metal and if you are a fan of this musical genre, you should check out this band. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Under The Flag" "Clusterfuck" "Point Blank" and "Let's Deflagerate". RECOMMENDED BUY.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

1. Can you tell us a little bit about the band for those that have never heard of you before?

Dead Cowboy's Sluts is a side-project which was born few years ago. We are all longtime friends and we all evolved from a decade in various punk / hardcore bands. We have always been big fans of metal. That’s how the idea of playing some metal songs has come, just for fun.

We’re often assimilated to a trash metal band, which can actually be true. We let people think what they want about us and our musical genre, it does not bother us. We love all different kind of Metal so everything’s okay for us! One day, a gig booker wrote on a flyer “thrash / stoner” to qualify our music. I don’t know if you can imagine the gap between the two! (Laughs). The only thing I wouldn’t agree would be Christian Metal, because then I would say that the guy didn’t understand anything at all to our music (laughs). On this first album, we’ve clearly chosen to leave it dirty, very close to what you can find live. We wanted something that really smashes, with few arrangements, so people can easily recognize a song when they see us on stage. We insist on the power and the strong energy that comes from it.

3. What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?

Our lyrics are mainly based on horror and gore films, particularly about serial killers and their vices. We also speak about religion and, by religion, I mean all of them. We focused on how it can be exploited by some people and take advantage of it for their own. We would like to say that we’re not defending something particularly. The stories we tell remain “stories”. We are not inciting violence or anything else. It’s just pieces of music...

4. What is the meaning and inspiration behind the bands name?

The band name is a little tribute to PanterA. If you want to go further, we can say that the term "Cowboy" comes from their song "Cowboy's From Hell", the term "Dead" is related to the death of Dimebag Darrel (and the end of the band’s shows too). Finally, "Sluts" qualifies us as the descendants of this kind of metal. On the old school way !

5. What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and how would youdescribe your stage performance?

We’ve got a lot of great memories from our shows. If I had to choose one, it would be the “Bataclan” in Paris. This place is legendary! Being on stage and performing a show, in that place where we’ve seen so much bands we like, it was really great. The crowd was there and was going wild. We also really appreciated the show with Cancer Bats. Crazy atmosphere! On stage, we’re trying to flabbergast people, to catch their attention and not let them breathe a second. We give everything we have and really try to recreate visually what people can hear on the album. For this reason, we set up several screens on stage, broadcasting freaky and weird videos. If you want people to be reactive in the pit, you have to unleash your own rage on stage! To sum up, we’re energic, powerfull, full of positive rage! We drink a lot, talk a lot, and do everything to put people in the mood we want.

6. Do you have any touring plans for the future?

We are going to book a lot of gigs to promote the album release in September 2012, so we should be able to export our shows quickly in other European countries and, we hope, worldwide.

7. Currently you are singed to M & O Records, how did you get in contact with this label andhow would you describe the support that they have given you so far?

We’ve been looking for some partnerships after having our album recorded. The M & O MUSIC label was the best proposal regarding to our situation. There are not so much serious labels in France for metal bands. M & O MUSIC is really doing a great job with the bands it oversees, as far as the promotional point of view, as distribution and other live shows proposal. We felt that they have a real desire to make things right by their side and, for the moment, we don’t regret our choice.

8. On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of thrash and deathmetal?

For now, we can say that we had good feedbacks for the music we play and shows we perform. We were so lucky to open for famous bands and the public has always responded positively to our live shows. I could not tell you much more on this, because we’re not interested that much on this point. What we love is making music, playing together, growing, and performing good shows. When we play live, it really matters to us that the rooms is filled with a great atmosphere. The rest belongs to the forums and things like that on the internet. It doesn’t participate to the music at all; it doesn’t interest us more than that. We experience music as something personal. Even if people don’t hang to it, we would continue to enjoy playing together first. We are completely honest in our approach, we play what we like, we dress as we want to, and we say what we want to say even if it can displease. This is the way we think as a united band, and it’s not about to change. If people like that, this is really great, but if they don’t, we don’t give a shit. We’re fully aware that we’ll never be superstars. We play music to do what we love first, and live our life this way, day after day. We do things when we decide to do it, and there’s no way for us to worry about the current trends. We don’t have to rely it, or care about someone’s point of view about it. People have to like, we don’t have to adapt ourselves. That’s the way it is.

9. Are there any current side projects besides this band or is this a full time line up?

As I said at the beginning, Dead Cowboy's Sluts is already a side project of every members of the group. Now it is our main activity because we had chance to do more gigs and go further with it. Now, all that we were doing before is on a stand-by mode. It doesn’t’ mean that we can’t work on different projects by our own, but nothing really serious by the way. We are in Dead Cowboy's Sluts, and for the moment we’re all completely devoted to it.

10. What direction do you see your music heading into on future releases?

We are still composing new songs and for now, it is in the same mainstream as the first album. Of course, the more we play, the more we move forward, so it opens new doors. We don’t think about it. We are carrying away to see what it will become, but at least, for the moment, we’re not looking in another direction. The efficiency is more important for us than pure technical demonstration, or constantly seeking tons of arrangements and harmonies that can finally overload your music. Moreover, if you're not able to give back on stage what you’ve created because you’ve completely separated your work in the studio over the reality of your shows, it doesn’t really sound right.

11. What are some bands or musical styles that have influenced your music and also what areyou listening to nowadays?

I will not be very original in my answer. The main influence of the group, is clearly positioned on the metal like PanterA, Slayer, At The Gates, the Haunted, Lamb of God. It is a description of our influences broadly as metal music is wide today and it would still be too limited to speak only of those big bands. Individually, we listen to every kind of music : Metal, punk and hardcore are the basis of what we’re listening to, because we’re playing this kind of sound for a long time, but we have, in the band, big fans of Hip Hop, blues, jazz, rock, electro, dancehall, reggae, etc..

We think it is important, when you’re a musician, to be aware of others musical genre. Inspiration doesn’t come every time from Metal, to compose Metal songs. We love music for what it represents and the feelings it gives. This is how the inspiration can come from, even if the musical genre is totally different. You take the things you’ve appreciated, to put it back in a fucking violent song as we love (laughs). Music is a universal thing and sometimes you can find much more violence in an acoustic song than in a trash metal one.

12. Outside of music what are some of your interests?

Catechism, synchronized swimming and fishing. (laugh)

No; Sex, Alcool, Drugs, Alcool, Rock’N’Roll & Alcool.

13. Any final words or thoughts before we wrap up this interview?

Yes. First, we would like to thank you to take an interest in our group.We want to thank people who support us and who are coming in our gigs. All the people who trust us and give us the opportunity to go further, our label M&O Music, all the friends we have who are there for us when we need. Thank you.

Monday, August 27, 2012

l 1. Can you tell us a little bit about the band for those that have never heard of you before?

Thank you for the space and interest. This is Francisco "Paco" vocals. Well, the band started in 2004, intentionally to create pure Death Metal, during this few years, the band had been active so far with 3 albums, 3 video clips and lots of live shows in México with very good national acts and fortunetly acting like openers for very well known bands like Nile, Decapitated, Impaled Nazarene, Severe Torture, Grave and some otheres.

2. How would you describe your musical sound?

EE is just Death Metal, since the band started creating this type of music, the old sound, low tune guitars, blast beats, gutural voice, etc. was the main goal, as much extreme as we can make the riffs the better, for sure, bands from the 80s 90s were influence in the band.

3. What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?

Well, the main line of the band itself is the anti-religion and dogmatic institutions, the band as well, combine subjects like, use your brain, be more introspective and do what you like to do, with no regrets and no remorse...don't let otheres think for you, and never let some religion guide your thoughts or actions, we are individuals, sometimes we step into politics just a few, social and psycothic subjects.

4. What is the meaning and inspiration behind the bands name?

Well, this is kinda funny story, as the band is from Méxcio, is very common to get news from the US side, sometimes exagerated news you know?...so in 2004, few years after the 9/11 all the war media infest mexican news, at that point the US army was into Irak you know, doing their stuff and shit, some new headline came to me and I was like, fuck this is a good name for the band, the report was about J.W. Bush, it said something like...Jeorge W Bush´s Evil Entourage, they were talking about the army...so that was where the Evilness come up!!

5. What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and how would you describe your stage performance?

We have been in a very different situations on the stage you know, talking about the equipment, about the people in charge, all the regular things that you can come up douring a performance, but to be honest and in order to let the fans know...EVIL ENTOURAGE is always a maniac discharge of energy on the stage, since we start a show till the end you can expect explosion of brutal assault, it's hard to compare good shows though, but I can tell that the one we played with NILE was one of the best, because we have lots of things against us, the bad organization, bad backline, the crowd was upset at that point with the venue, but we handel it quite well and at the end the people were so happy to have us on stage.

6. Do you have any touring plans for the future?

Yes, the band is now working on making a tour next year 2013 in Europe, things looks like we are in a good spot now, so the booking is now starting, this could be the first time the band go out of México, we do at least 2 big tours every year since the last 3, 4 years now...but at this point, the band wants to step up further and better if you can say so.

7. On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of death metal?

Well, I can say that the answer had been awesome in this level you know, as Mexican Metal band, is hard to make precence in the big scene, but for sure the people who have been in a show or get the cds outside Mexico, had response very well, good reviews from e-zines, mags, blogs and some other charts, good metal heads who mail to us asking for the t-shirts and cds, that's something that we didn't expect at that level, we haven´t sold that many cds, but for now, to have like 3,000 copies flying around the globe is amazing hehehe

8. Are there any other musical projects besides this band or is this a full time line-up?

Actually the band is a full time line-up, every member have a real comitment with EE, but there is a lot of ideas that could not fit on our music style you know, so the guitarist and drummer are together in a different project called Sinners Inc. a very good rock n roll stoner death metal band ahahaha STONER as fuck!!! check it out...

9. What direction do you see your music heading into on future releases?

The band is releasing a new album called "The Opposition" this September 17th, we are heading to strike as much places out of mexico as we can, this is our new goal, as I told you, we are heading a big european tour, hopefully hit the US scene in the near future too...

10. How would you describe your views on Occultism, Satanism and Anti Christianity?

For me, always have been part of my life, not because I'm a satanist, or a witch o hater whatever, is just because I'm always using my brain, serching for information from other centuries, cultures, etc. Occultism for me is magic and I like the way its taken now, with fear and tabu, so I like to use that maner to create more impact with the theme, about Satanism is a very good way of living if you can say so, live as you want, do what you like, pay attention to your healt and body, and enjoy all the carnal enjoyments, I have this filosophy to myself and the band have the image of Satanism as shield against religion institutions, the Anti Christianity is part of the EE lyrics though, we all live in a world full of ideologies, religions and brain washers, but Christianity is the biggest and stronger pile of lies, all to manipulate minds in the entire planet, that's why we are the opposition of that, I don´t hate christians, I hate the way they try to manipulate, the way they get rich without moving any fucking finger, how they have all the politics power in Mexico at least, so EVIL ENTOURAGE is against that...against christianity!

11. What are some bands or musical styles that have influenced your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

This is a hard question, we are 4 members in the band, all of us have a very diferent taste for music, but all for good music, metal have been inside my blood since I was young, but extreme metal came up to me at the age of 10, where I was hungry for more extreme shit, as I can say in this lines, is that bands like Deicide, Morbid Angel, Death, Slayer, Cannibal Corpse, Entumbed, Unleashed, etc had influenced personally, for sure the other members had their own bands but in general I can let you know that our brains are full of extreme shit ahahahaha, nowadays thanx to the internet is very easy to know bands from any single corner of this planet, so is hard to determine what band you like cuz in one day you found this killer band from japan, but couple of hrs later you found this from france and blows your head off...so, I like to discover new bands, let them flow into my ears and just enjoy a very good death metal, although, there is others bands, not that extreme that i like to listen to in order to get ideas or just to spend a very good time with good music.

12. Outside of music what are some of your interests?

All of the members have their own things you know?...we still don't live about the music, so we have jobs and shit, but for me, I'm audio technitian, involved in the showbusiness industry, production, management, México have this big issue that if you are not into pop music, rancheras, cumbia, all the shit mainstream you'll not do a living through music, that's why must of the bands, have regular jobs

13. Any final words or thoughts before we wrap up this interview?

Tank you very much for the time and space to let the people knows more about EVIL ENTORUAGE, we are sure we're gonna meet each other some time soon, and to say the fans, be ready for the Hell's unleashed in this earth, don't forget to vist us on facebook/evilentourage, contact us for booking at evilentourage@gmail.com and JOIN THE OPPOSITION!!! 666

Friday, August 24, 2012

Deserted Fear are a band from Germany that plays a very heavy and brutal form of old school death metal and this is a a review of their 2012 album "My Empire" which was released by FDA Rekotz.

Drums range from slow, mid paced to fast drumming with a great amount of brutal sounding blast beats being thrown into the music, while the bass playing has a very dark tone with riffs that follow the riffing that is coming out of the guitars.

Rhythm guitars range from slow, mid paced to fast death metal riffs that are very heavy and brutal sounding combining influences from both the Sweden and Florida scenes of the early 90's with some melody being thrown into the riffing, while the lead guitars are very melodic sounding death metal guitar solos and leads.

Vocals are all deep death metal growls, while the lyrics cover dark and violent themes, as for the production it has a very strong, powerful and heavy sound perfectly capturing the early 90's death metal sound.

In my opinion Deserted Fear are a very great sounding old school style death metal band and if you are a fan of this musical genre, you should check out this band. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Batalion Of Insanities" "Nocturnal Frags" "The Black Incantation" and "Bury Your Dead". RECOMMENDED BUY.

Evil Entourage are a band from Mexico that plays a very heavy, brutal and evil form of death metal and this is a review of their 2012 album "The Opposition" which was released by Chaos Records.

Drums range from slow, mid paced to fast drumming with a great amount of brutal sounding blast beats being thrown into the music, while the bass playing has a very dark tone with riffs that follow the riffing that is coming out of the guitars, as for the synths they are only utilized on one song and they bring an epic and classical music feeling to the album.

Rhythm guitars range from slow, mid paced to fast death metal riffs that are very heavy, brutal and evil sounding in the early 90's satanic death metal tradition, while the lead guitars when they are utilized are very chaotic sounding death metal guitar solos and leads

Vocals are mostly deep death metal growls with some high pitched screams being thrown into the music at times, while the lyrics cover darkness, evil, and anti christian themes, as for the production it has a very strong, powerful and heavy sound to it.

In my opinion Evil Entourage are a very great sounding heavy, brutal and evil death metal band and if you are a fan of this musical style, you should check out this recording. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Swathe To Blind" and "True Rejected". RECOMMENDED BUY.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Masochist are a band from Poland that plays a very atmospheric form of death metal and this is a review of their 2012 album "Scorned" which was released by Selfmadegod Records.

Drums range from slow, mid paced to fast drumming with some blast beats being thrown into the music at times, while the synths when they are utilized bring a very dark and atmospheric sound to the music, as for the bass playing it has a very strong and powerful sound with heavy riffs that dominate throughout the recording.

Rhythm guitars range from slow, mid paced to fast death metal riffs that utilize some brutal and technical parts, while the lead guitars are very old school sounding death metal guitar solos and leads.

Vocals are mostly deep death metal growls with a brief use of clean singing on the last song, while the lyrics cover violent and hateful themes, as for the production it has a very strong, powerful, heavy and professional sound where you can hear all of the musical instruments that are present on this recording.

In my opinion Masachist are a very great sounding atmospheric death metal band and if you are a fan of this musical style, you should check out this recording. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Drilling The Nerves" "Higher Authority" "Liberation" and "Inner Void". RECOMMENDED BUY.

Inset are a band from Poland that plays a mixture of thrash and death metal and this is a review of their self released 2012 demo.

Drums range from slow, mid paced to fast drumming with a good amount of blast beats being thrown into the music at times, while the bass playing has a very strong and powerful sound with heavy riffing that dominates throughout the recording.

Rhythm guitars range from slow, mid paced to fast death metal riffs that utilize a good amount of thrash influences being thrown into the riffing as well as a brief use of clean playing, while the lead guitars are old school sounding death metal guitar solos and leads.

Vocals are all deep death metal growls, while the lyrics cover dark and violent themes, as for the production it has a very strong and powerful sound where you can hear all of the musical instruments that are present on this recording.

In my opinion Inset are a very good sounding old school style death metal band and if you are a fan of this musical style, you should check out this demo. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Sunday Hordes" and "Last Breath Before Us". RECOMMENDED.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Dead Cowboy's Sluts are a band from France that plays a mixture of death and thrash metal and this is a review of their 2012 album "The Hand Of Death" which was released by M & O Music.

Drums range from slow, mid paced to fast drumming with a good amount of brutal sounding blast beats being thrown into the music, while the bass playing has a very dark tone with riffs that follow the riffing that is coming out of the guitars and at times they have a very powerful sound to them.

Rhythm guitars range from slow, mid paced to fast riffs that combine death, groove and thrash metal together to create a sound of their own, while the lead guitars are very old school sounding thrash metal guitar solos and leads, as for the acoustic guitars which are only utilized briefly they use finger picking and full chords to bring a 70s rock sound to the music.

Vocals are mostly thrash style screams mixed in with a good amount of deep death metal growls, high pitched screams and spoken word samples, while the lyrics cover violent and hateful themes, as for the production it has a very strong, powerful, heavy and professional sound to it.

In my opinion Dead Cowboy's Sluts are a very great sounding hybrid of thrash, groove, and death metal and if you are a fan of this musical style, you should c heck out this band. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Asylum Breakout" "Must Be Broken" "This Hate" and "Backdraft". RECOMMENDED BUY.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Can you give us an update on what is going on with the band these days?

We have released an album recently. Currently we are at the stage of promotion of the album and we are about to play some concerts after the holidays. And we are thinking about creating new material as well, the seeds have been formed.

How would you describe the musical sound of the new album and how it differs from previous releases?

We wanted this album to be musically embedded in the 90’s last century and I think we succeeded in. As far as the difference is regarded this release is our official debut. Previously, we recorded two cassette demos, but it was about 20 years ago, and there is abyss of time to make a comparison. Although we used songs from that period and we tried to create new songs in order not to deviate from the oldest, the production, sound recording quality and so on it is totally different age.

What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the new release?

The texts on this CD are my personal confessions on issues that hurt. It is saturated by anger at what is happening around us, at how we allow for the collapse of European civilization. At the debauchery, the lack of inhibitions, to promote decay and deviation under the banner of modernity, tolerance and equality, to bring normalcy to the level of one or another disorder. And also at how history is falsified and new false heroes are promoted

What is the meaning and inspiration behind the bands name?
The band’s name was created over 20 years ago inspired by the track from the first Death’s album titled Infernal Death. That is all. We all were then and we are today big fans of the Chuck Schuldiner’s band

The band was broken up for a long time, what was the cause of the split and what was it that motivated the band to get back together after all these years?

The band eventually broke up in 1995, after five years of playing. The main reason was the lack of common purpose. There was a conflict between us, which led first to the personnel changes, and ultimately to the disintegration of the band. What motivated us to return? Longing for playing. I personally have never ceased to believe that the band will be playing. Unfortunately, it took 16 years to make it happen. As they say, better late than never

What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and how would you describe your stage performance?

Infernal Death has always been a touring band. And 20 years ago and today, the scene was and is our element. We make music in order to sell it live on the stage in direct contact with the fans. And we played a lot of really good gigs and it's hard for me to mention the best.

Do you have any touring plans for the future?

As I mentioned earlier we are planning active concert career after the holidays? September-October are the months in which we want to make the noise a little

On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your new album by fans of death metal?

Album has just appeared in our country. From what I know the publisher has signed distribution agreements in Germany as well. Till now, we have got reviews from publishers of zines and webzines. So far, they are rather positive, so we are in optimistic mood. And by the way we are curious about your opinion…

Are there any current side projects besides this band or is this full time?

Bogacz and RaV also play in a band called Tumour of Soul, and Cymer has a band Disseminate.

What direction do you see your music heading into on future releases

This album is a closure of a chapter. Settlement of the first period of our performance and conclusion what we could not do then. New material that has already been written is creating primarily by the "young" in the team, so surely there will be a breath of freshness, but we "old" will be watching them, because the ID must remain ID

What are some bands or musical styles that have influenced your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

It is difficult to point out some specific bands, but we are aware of incorporating to our music some strong influences of old death metal patterns, it goes subconsciously while writing songs, especially that half of old material included on Gniew (Anger) is mixed with the new one. We do not make the song to follow or copy Morbid Angel, Deicide or Vader. We create what comes from our souls and flows in our veins. Everyone of us listen to a little different kind of music, for example Cymer is devoted fan of Nile, RaV is fan of Death, Charles – progressive death and thrash, and me – old school of death metal

How would you describe your views on Occultism?

I am not concerned about it. I make music not ideology. In my texts I describe real problems of life. I do not write about demons, devils, etc. It's totally not my story.

Outside of music what are some of your interests?

We all have families, wives, children, and they consume us completely. We all work professionally in order to provide maintenance and support. Apart from proffesional activites we are interesting in listening to music and playing of course. Personally I am passionate about history and sacrifice my spare time to penetrate its secrets

Any final words or thoughts before we wrap up this interview?

Thanks a lot for this interview and the opportunity to present the ID. Greetings to all readers on behalf of the entire crew of the ID
Stay true, and let your Anger grow

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Ad Patres are a band from France that plays a very brutal form of death metal and this is a review of their 2012 album "Scorn Aesthics" which was released by Kaotoxin Records.

Drums range from slow, mid paced to fast drumming with a great amount of brutal sounding blast beats being thrown into the music, while the bass playing has a very strong and powerful sound with heavy riffing that dominates throughout the recording.

Rhythm guitars range from slow, mid paced to fast death metal riffs that are very heavy and brutal sounding, while the lead guitars are very chaotic and melodic sounding death metal guitar solos and leads.

Vocals are mostly deep death metal growls with some high pitched screams being thrown into the music at times, while the lyrics cover dark and violent themes, as for the production it has a very strong, powerful, heavy and professional sound to it.

In my opinion Ad Patres are a very great sounding brutal death metal band and if you are a fan of this style, you should check out this album. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "The Lock" "Scorn Aesthics" "Emphasize Nihility" and "All That Remains". RECOMMENDED BUY.